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I was an art/photography major at Allegheny College (a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania) in the 1970’s, but I had let my art slide; computer programming ended up being my profession. Five years ago, however, I abruptly changed direction. I give two reasons for this: one being 9/11 (I’m a New Yorker), the other being a major personal loss the year before. Both those events reminded me that life is damn short, and that I had better get crackin’. The vehicle that got me jump-started was a short 4-week class I took on this silly camera called the Holga (of which I had never heard). I have been going full speed ever since.

The Holga is a plastic camera that uses medium format film. The film advance doesn’t force you to advance a full frame; one can turn the knob any arbitrary amount. My images are done by only partially advancing the film between shots, meaning the images overlap as I shoot. The composition is therefore primarily done “in camera”; it comes off of the negative this way.

I enjoy shooting very fast and spontaneously, and I like the surprise element involved. A roll of medium format film of maybe 24 or so overlapping exposures will at most give me two final images (I usually use a 7:1 aspect ratio, which is about half of the length of the roll). Occasionally I’ve printed an entire roll as one piece, but that is one unwieldy print. Most rolls will at most yield only one piece, from somewhere on the roll.

Subject matter-wise I like industrial objects, monumental things like grain elevators and Times Square billboards, and big crowds of people. My work primarily expresses motion. Either I am shooting people that are in motion or I myself am in movement around my subject. I will stalk my subjects, be they a swarm of gesturing humans or abstract shapes of color and light.

I scan my film using a large 11×17 flatbed scanner (Epson 1640XL). I can scan a half of a roll at once and only need to do one splice. Because I want the option of printing large, I always scan at the maximum optical resolution (with this scanner only 1600 dpi). Though I wish I had a higher res scanner, in actuality the files are so large even at that resolution. My files often start out a gig or more and are never less than 250MB as the finished file.

I work a long time on my images. The exposure originates very uneven (due to the overlap). I select small areas of the image, define the adjustment (usually via curves), clear the area adjusted, and then paint on that adjustment wherever needed. I go thru many, many adjustment stages, usually flattening the image as I go due to the large file sizes involved. I beef up the color via increasing the contrast; I like purity of color and am usually trying to nurse that out of the file. I do edit the images; I remove distracting details like cigarette butts on the ground, and I sometimes move things around. Rarely do I combine images from multiple rolls. I do, however, sometimes remove chunks just to keep the piece a manageable width. I am usually taking away, not adding to the imagery, if changing it at all.

My exhibition prints are digital C-prints. My standard print size is 30″x7″, matted and framed at 36″x12.5″. I also print them larger, most often 15″ high by 5 to 8 feet wide. I recognized early on my desire to make these things really big, which is why I started applying for public art projects; recently I was awarded my first commissions. I am currently having produced four murals for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (images of construction projects and DOT trucks and equipment, which I shot in Minnesota). These will be 2′ high by varying widths, the largest being 24 feet wide, a full roll image. I am also working on a mural for a public school in New Haven, Connecticut on the topic of the labor movement; this will be a different endeavor in that it will be a collage of existing historical photographs. That mural will be 5′-3″ high x 48′ wide and will be printed as porcelain enamel on steel (it will be comprised of twelve 4′ wide panels). The Minnesota pieces are being printed as digital high pressure laminate (a process similar to Formica). Both of those materials are very durable for purposes of public art use.

I like to think that my work has a lot of interest and complexity, and I intend for the images to celebrate the everyday details of life. I am also delighted how often these mostly unplanned juxtapositions capture my experience of a particular time and place and at the same time have an identity all their own.